Interviews - the first round

From dvd:

1. is there a book you wish you'd written yourself?
You mean apart from the best-selling ever? ;) After some careful thought I'd say His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (it's listed on Amazon as one item; I'm allowed to count it as one book) because it's one of the most wonderful books I've ever read. And if I'd written it I wouldn't have been waiting on that damn cliffhanger at the end of the second book for three years before The Amber Spyglass came out, because I'd know what would happen next. Hah.

Although I have a vague aspiration to write fiction it's certainly not a burning desire as yet, and whenever I've tried the problem that hits me is plot. If someone gives me the outline of a plot I could write a pretty decent story, but otherwise I'll struggle. And I don't think I'm too good at dialogue either - the only time I can recall writing good dialogue that worked and didn't seem too awkward or unnatural was for my one and only piece of fanfic. The dialogue was no problem there because I (and my audience) already knew the characters intimately and how they spoke.

2. favourite tipple?
Well, I don't actually drink that much at all. [Cue gasps of shock at the seventeen-year-old who doesn't drink.] And nowadays whenever I go somewhere where drinking may be involved I tend to drive there anyway, so... Sorry; boring answer.

3. talent you're most proud of possessing?
Ooh, that's a good question. As in, the question I had to spend the longest time thinking about. I ran through various options such as the fact that various people think that I write well, or my skill with maths or computers, and so on but I kept finding that the pride I once felt in those skills had faded a bit over time. As far as I can tell, this is because I've found that lots of other people could do it better in each case. For example, I was always best in the year at maths until I changed schools for my A-levels - to a rather highly-ranked academic school - and found a number of people just as good or better than me at maths, which I found somewhat frustrating. And I've always been the 'person who knows about computers' and the person who's most proficient with them. Then a couple of years ago I found a lot more geeks on the internet who indirectly revealed to me that I actually knew relatively nothing about computers.

I think what's coming out of this is that I'd be proudest of a skill that only I possessed, or that no one else had to the same extent as I did. Based on that, I'm going to say that I'm proudest of my very good memory and my ability to pick things up and learn them quickly.

4. can you replace a blown fuse?
I certainly can! I can also wire plugs, thanks to my GCSE physics. But this is hypothetically; in practice if a fuse blew I wouldn't be able to change it because I don't know where our spares are. If worst came to the worst I could always go and buy a new one though, so overall that's a 'yes'.

5. daddy or chips?
It was Fathers' Day yesterday, so what else can I say but 'Daddy'? And I'm not a huge fan of proper British chips anyway - the ones you always get in pubs, all thick and mushy and look like they've been doing backstroke in a puddle of oil.

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From Clair (whose exams are almost over... envy):

1- Which country you would must like to live in if you had to leave you current abode?
Ah, interesting. My gut reaction was Australia (or at least, somewhere in Australasia), but I'm not so sure that I'd want to live there rather than just go on a really long visit. The heat, mainly, and the rather large, poisonous and plentiful spiders and insects. Oh, but they get those amazingly intense blue skies... and the scenery...

Okay, sod it, I'm sold on Australia or NZ. I'll take suncream and insect repellant. Next?

2- What is your favourite breakfast food?
The combination of my late rising and strange stomach means that a lot of the time I don't eat breakfast because I'm just not hungry if I get up after about 9am. I know that sounds odd but the earlier I get up the hungrier I am, and unless I'm forced I don't get up before about 9:30, so I tend to make do with a hot chocolate. At the moment it's cheese on toast for school mornings, but I'd love to have bacon every morning. Yum.

My best ever breakfast was actually a brunch, eaten at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel in Alberta, Canada a couple of years ago. My brother and my dad each managed to eat about two or three times the amount that I did, and we were there for about four hours altogether (and there were people in the dining room who arrived before we did and were still sitting there when we left). Imagine, if you will, a room about 30 feet by 70 feet. Down the whole length of the room to the left is a very large buffet, and there are two or three standalone carts fully laden with more foodstuffs. This room, this buffet contains just about everything and anything you could possibly want to eat for breakfast or lunch. I think I had about five or six different rounds of food although I have a famously small appetite. It was just stunning and when we left, waddling from the room and moving slowly, we all agreed that it was the best breakfast we'd had.

3- Do you have a favourite artist, and why?
Um, art? I gave up on art when I was twelve, and it gave up on me a long time before that. So, sorry, no I don't have a favourite artist.

4- What "adventurous" sport (sky diving etc.) would you most/least like to try?
Most: hang-gliding. Peace, quiet, calm exhilaration.
Least: bungee jumping. Hurtling, jolt, terror.

5- What is the unladen flight velocity of an african swallow?
More than that of a laden one.

Oh, okay you want a real answer? Well, its final velocity would depend on how high it was when it was shot.

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From Aquarion:

1) Did you make any resolutions when you started your weblog?
Well it was six months ago, I don't know if my memory stretches back that far... I think more than anything else it was to stick with it, and write something at least every two or three days. And not to post any cat pictures.

2) Did you keep them?
Yes to the first, no to the second (I think there have been a couple of five-day gaps), and no to the third. I gave in to that temptation a couple of weeks ago.

3) Desert Island Books. Limit 5.
Argh! Damn you... five? FIVE? You're going to have to allow trilogies, etc. as one book, else I'm not going.

Large books for preference. Gone With The Wind, because I know I can reread it lots of times without it becoming dull with familiarity. His Dark Materials, even though it feels like I've already read Northern Lights too much. Now every time I start that book ("Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall...") I sigh mentally, and think, "Oh. They moved through the darkening hall, did they? Fancy that. Keeping to the side out of sight of the kitchen too, I bet." It's all superbly written, and I can remember it being enthralling the first few times I read it, but the opening just doesn't stand up to rereading as well as the rest of the book. This is always my major obstacle in the way of reading the trilogy (I can't read the second two books without the first one, so don't even think of suggesting it). Um. Lord Of The Rings, because I've only read it twice so far and I want to read it a lot more, and it's certainly large! House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski because it's so fabulously complex that it will need several rereadings. And a desert island would be a very good place to read it because there would only be enough light to read by during daylight, so I wouldn't be reading it at night or in the dark. This is not a book that you want to read in the dark.

For the last book I was going to say something like "Raft Building For Novices" but actually, I'll forgo that to take another book. And think of all the extra reading time in the peace and quiet while I'm waiting for someone to rescue me :)

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett because: (a) I think I have to take a Discworld book, really, and (b) it's the one that I've read the least - due to the pressures of all the other books I haven't reread it since it came out in November, which is surprising because I'll usually read a new DW book three times in the first year that it's out - and also the one that I found to be the most powerfully written, and (c) it's a big hardback and would therefore be useful for subduing the local wildlife. I don't think it's big enough for a raft, though.

4) They're remaking Gone With The Wind. Who would you cast?
Nowadays? Hang on, let me get my fantasy cast out of the way first: I actually think Vivien Leigh did fine as Scarlett, and looked almost exactly right for the part as well. For Rhett Butler... if he could do a realistic accent, a mid-Sixties Sean Connery would have been quite good I think.
Okay. Again, could he but do the accent, Brad Pitt might not do too badly... oy! Stop sniggering, he can act - did you see Twelve Monkeys? Or possibly Jude Law. As for Scarlett, I don't know, but anyone to avoid the otherwise inevitable casting of Julia Roberts. Kate Winslet might be able to pull it off. And someone like Melora Walters would be able to play Melanie (for some reason, I always felt Melanie should be blonde).

I struggled with this question firstly because I'm not very good with casting questions anyway since rating actors' abilities is not really my thing. And secondly because the reason I can't stand the film of Gone With The Wind is that even though it's four hours long, it still leaves out about 80% of the plot alone. Not to mention characters - Scarlett's first two children don't exist in the film (who are fairly instrumental in showing her character), neither does Will Benteen, who ended up looking after Tara when Scarlett returns to Atlanta (not explained at all in the film - is it assumed that Suellen and Carreen did all the farm-work themselves?) And not to mention just about all of the social and historical background, and how drastically the entire society changed. A lot of my favourite scenes either aren't there or are cut very short as well - it's as maddening as trying to listen to abridged Discworld audio books when I know the books so well that I constantly notice good jokes or paragraphs that have been left out.

5) When will you get to an AFP or UKBlog meet?
Ha :) Hopefully one of the very next ones when (a) I'm free from exams (only a week left!), (b) I'm in the country, (c) I'm near enough to the event to get there, and (d) there are likely to be at least two or three people that I know. I would say CCDE 2003 but my parents aren't too keen on my going camping for a weekend with a load of people whom I only know from the internet, so we'll see.

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Feel free to ask any more questions - I mean, it's not like I should be doing anything else like revision at the moment...